It Happened in Hillsborough: “Maison Oue Nous Villaines”

The second in our series of three often-overlooked maps of the Revolutionary War period might be the
most misunderstood of the set. This 1777 map depicting the British occupation of the eastern portion of
Hillsborough Township is sometimes said to have been surveyed for George Washington. That’s
nowhere near the truth. For one thing, Washington’s cartographer would not have labeled
Hillsborough’s seat of government “House of our Enemies.”

“Maison Oue Nous Villaines”

“Plan of our Camp at New Brunswick, 12 th June…” was in fact drawn by Friedrich Adam Julius von
Wangenheim. He was a twenty-eight-year-old German botanist specializing in forestry. He used his time
as a Hessian soldier fighting for the British during the Revolution to study and describe American forests,
and to draw maps.

As an 18th-century natural philosopher and scientist – an educated gentleman – he would have used
French as a common language to converse with peers from other countries. That obviously came in
handy when annotating his battlefield maps, as British officers would have been able to read French (or
what Von Wangenheim put forth as French) more easily than they would read German.

The map shows the position of British, Hessian, and American troops between the Sourland hills in the
west and New Brunswick in the east. The “Milston” and “Rariton” rivers are noted, as are the positions
of the two main American armies – Washington’s on the Watchung ridge, and General Sullivan’s near
Clover Hill.

The map is not to scale and is only meant to show the relative positions of the landmarks, roads, and
armies. Von Wangenheim was not as familiar with the local placenames as some of his compatriots, and
therefore, although he had heard of Somerset Courthouse, Middlebush, and Hillsborough, he didn’t
exactly know where to place them on the map. No matter – we get the idea.

One location the amateur Hessian mapmaker WAS sure about was Garrett Garretson’s Tavern. It was
located at the intersection of what today is Amwell and East Mountain Roads (where the YMCA is
located). The tavern was the meeting place of Hillsborough’s town fathers before, during, and after The
Revolution. It was also a place where Washington and Sullivan could send letters to each other – a post
office, of sorts. In his “high school French,” Von Wangenheim labels the tavern “Maison Oue Nous
Villaines” – “House of our Enemies.”

He is identifying Hillsborough’s “Town Hall” as a major rebel headquarters. And, indeed it was! But
patriots were not the only ones who had a headquarters in Hillsborough during the Revolution. Next
week we will look at a map with another surprise.

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Gregory Gillette has been writing about local history for 20 years, starting with his Courier News column
“Gillette on Hillsborough” and continuing today with a Facebook page of the same name. A recipient of
the Somerset County Cultural and Heritage Commission History Award for Education/Leadership in
2018, he was named as Hillsborough’s first Local Historian in 2025.